Summer sure goes fast! (All of July and early August)

Going to Girl's camp was such a great experience!  It was my first night ever being away from kids since Kai was born and it was so nice to just have girl time.  I would have stayed the whole week of camp if I could have!  It was nice to come home to a clean house and to see the kids, though. And I was super tired because I could not sleep for the life of me out there in that tent.  I heard coyotes howling and our tent backed right up to the woods.  The next morning we were told a bear had been hanging out overnight.  So, while I would have loved more time away, it was nice to be a bed without a bear nearby!

After camp we had about 3 weeks before Kristi's family arrived for a visit.  Somehow we kept ourselves busy!

Working on measuring with our cooking class

Hiking the 7 Bridges trail with friends from the ward
This was a great hike and I'd love to do it again!  There were actually 7 bridges to cross and it was a little less than 3 miles round trip.  This particular day, though, the hike was a bit traumatic for me as I was hiking with a new family in the ward and the mom had a baby on her back and took two serious falls.  And her sweet 3 year old who walked the whole way fell and busted his nose.  At the end I ended up carrying him the last quarter mile and he fell asleep in my arms (blood smeared all over his face).  I need to redo the hike and have a good experience!

Bree with her friends Wally and Eleanor (they are twins who are about 8 months older than her)

Bree at bridge 7!  Wally and Eleanor turned back at bridge 4 and so they asked us to take pictures of the rest of the bridges so I have a lot of pictures of Bree on a bridge!

bridge 5 on the way back down the trail

#719rocks took off this summer!  Finn found this awesome painted rock in the Target parking lot on 7/11 day

This was our first year actually going to 7/11 on 7/11.  My kids LOVED it!

We took an amazing trip to the zoo where we decided to do something we rarely do and that is try to hit some of the shows/training sessions with the animals.  The bird show is right at the front of the park so we waited for about 10 minutes after we got to the zoo for the exhibition.  That put us near the front of the crowd and she told us to pay attention because if you could answer a question at the end you could help her out.  So, when the questions came out, I leaned over and helped Kai with an answer and he got called on and was right!  He got the chance to actually go into the bird enclosure and feed them.  It was a very neat experience!

The vultures saw it was food time and came down for their fresh meat.  The keeper gave Kai a plastic glove to through out dead mouse meat!  Yuck!

Next we made our way to the goat demonstration and while we waited all of the kids had to have a turn on the goat statue.

After the Rocky Mountain goat demonstration we made our way to the regular goats where we got to go in and pet them.  But while we were there Finn saw that his favorite bird was out.  This is Mister and Finn just adores this parrot because he talked to him when he walked by him one time a couple of years ago.  Finn was thrilled to see Mister out and about visiting people.

From there we headed to the reptile house and Bree got to touch a bearded dragon.  At this point we stopped for lunch and it had started raining.  And then it started pouring.  We decided to end our zoo trip to finish another day and made our way through the downpour to our car.  We were dripping wet!

The cousins arrived on July 19th and the next morning we set out on a hike.  We took them to Spruce Mountain Open Space.

These two girls had a great time!

All of the cousins made it up!

On Friday the 21st Uncle Erik had a meeting in Fort Collins and he took the older cousins so the younger ones stayed behind to play.  We took them to the Mining Museum and we spent a lot of time panning for gold.

We also took the tour so the kids could see the machines turned on.

At the end of the tour is one of the shafts built to help rescue the Chilean miners that were trapped in 2010.  This is Finn inside the shaft.

Kai in the shaft

On Saturday the 22nd we took them to visit one of our favorite parks and rec centers--the Miller Activity Complex in Castle Rock.  We spent a good amount of time there and managed to play outside and inside.  We all had a great time!

This group is experiencing some interesting dynamics these days.  I still have no idea how to deal with these boys and I'm sure they are going to keep us on our toes for years to come.  But I also am sure that one day they won't need us adults to help mediate!

Kai went down the water slide for the first time ever and was so excited.  He loved it and I was so incredibly proud of him!

These two had a blast in the "whirlpool" (a small section of the pool with a strong circular current)

Finn is my only kid not in swim lessons right now and he is terrified of the water.  He used to love it and had a great time at pools but is going through a tough period.  I'm hoping we turn a corner soon!

Aunt Kristi was out of the pool for the day as she was still recovering from a brown recluse bite 3 weeks earlier.  So, Kai was waving hi!

That day we had a late lunch/early dinner at Chick Fil-A and then decided to call our trip to Orange Leaf "dinner".  

The Perrins family left on Sunday the 23rd and then we spent the week kind of cleaning and recovering.  On Friday the 28th Kai took his survival ready test at his swim lesson.  For the test he had to jump in fully clothed (including shoes), pop up to a back float and then safely get out of the pool.  He did it!  I was so proud of him!  This was 14 months in the making and involved a lot of hard work on his part.  He has come a long way with his comfort level in the water but also with learning to cope with his anxiety and to work hard and face his fears.  He is learning to do hard things and that's what I like most about swim lessons for him.  It's been great!

On Sunday the 30th the cousins came back!  They were driving back home from Utah and so the stopped for another day to play.  On the 31st we took them to Fox Run park for a short walk, time at the playground, and feeding the fishes.  

Silly group shot of all of the cousins--Ethan (17), Owen (10), Maci (4), Bree (4), Bryn (14), Finn (7), Isaac (7), and Kai (10)

That night we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner as our last hurrah.  While we were waiting for a table the kids enjoyed playing on this super large hopscotch that someone had drawn outside of the restaurant.

It was kids' night which meant that all of the kids got ice cream at the end of the meal.

On Saturday August 5th the local gymnastics and dance center had an open house.  I took Bree and Finn and they had a blast.  I would have taken more pictures if my phone hadn't of died, but at least I got these of Bree having a blast on a bouncehouse.

At the open house we snagged a used leotard for her dance class this fall.  It was perfect and only $5.  Win win!  Of course she had to try it on when we got home!

The post vacation rhythm

After such a big vacation, coming home was initially hard.  We were all thoroughly exhausted from the trip and needed to recover.  And then the reality hit that life at home is not as exciting as it was on vacation.  But we have slowly worked our way back into life.  Kai has been continuing with piano and swim lessons (about every other week or so for swim--maybe a little less) and Finn has gone to one tennis lesson.  Bree has weekly swim lessons.  Other than that, we have started a family cooking class together.  We do it at home and work on cooking skills together.  It's been fun to see them grow in independence in the kitchen and I've been grateful that the class emphasizes kitchen skills, instead of just learning how to cook one particular thing.  We have had weekly play dates with friends at parks and even friends at our house.  And we have participated in the ward hiking group.  I've found that we haven't had a lot of spare time, but the occasions that we do have free time I've heard the phrase "I'm bored" and I've found some satisfaction in that.  This summer is going fast and is feeling productive.

Here's some pictures from after our trip (June 11th) to before I went to Girls' Camp (June 26th).

That first week home we were all tired and cleaning and doing laundry, etc.  On Wednesday afternoon we needed to get out of the house so we drove over to school, parked the car and got out to take a walk.  The best part of this trip was that we ended at a playground and Finn learned how to pump for himself on the swings.  And Kai almost figured it out.  Yippee!  I know this is something they should have learned by now but we really don't have anywhere for them to practice or learn.  I'm so glad that they have this skill now though!

Day 1 of our cooking class was Thursday the 15th.  They were all excited for this.  Finn and Bree love to help me in the kitchen so this was right up their alley.  Kai had no interest at all, but when I told him it was a class with a real "online" teacher I was able to pull him in.  Admittedly the skills are easy for him right now but, of all of my kids, he is the one with no foundation in the kitchen, so I'm making him do the first few lessons of the beginner level to get some basic skills.  He is just about ready to start cruising through the intermediate level now though!  The skill for this first class was spreading.  The kids had bread and butter to practice with and celery for ants on a log.

Finn loves "logs".  That's what he calls them without the "ants".  He actually takes these for lunch at school nearly daily.  It's funny to me because he won't eat peanut butter by itself or on a sandwich but he loves it on celery.  Whatever works, right?!

Funny shot from lounging around.  See those teeth?  The dentist says we need a few more teeth to come in before visiting the orthodontist.  We are looking at braces in about a year or so.  Ugghhh!

Our first outing with the ward hiking group on June 19th was to Green Mountain Falls.  I was told it was a kid friendly trail.  It turned out to be much harder than I had bargained for and I was glad that I had brought the hiking backpack for Bree.  There was a lot of scrambling across rocks and walking on a narrow trail on the edge of a cliff.  Bree and I ended up being at the end of the pack and a sweet woman from our old ward (who used to be my VTing teacher) stayed with us to make sure we were doing ok.  The boys went ahead with the majority of the group.  I'm so glad Finn didn't fall off of the mountain and that the other moms took good care of him.  They eventually sent out a rescue party for me, Bree and Sister Fowler and as we were arriving there was a second rescue party going out.  It was a comedy of errors as there was just not cell phone reception in the area at all. But the boys discovered a love for hiking with their friends this day!  The girl to the left of Finn is Kai's good friend Reese.  And the other two boys are her brothers.  We love this family and I'm so glad that Kai has a friend like Reese.  They are very much birds of a feather!

Later that week while doing chores with the boys I left the nebulizers on the stove to sterilize.  I forgot about them until I smelt the plastic burning.  OOOPS!

Cooking class two was working on knife skills

The kids made a large fruit salad for dinner.  We had so much that we shared some with Kai's piano teacher.

On Thursday the 22nd we met friends at the Miller Activity Complex in Castle Rock.  We played at the playground for a bit and then went to the splash pad area where we were playing and eating lunch when an afternoon storm rolled in.  We tried to wait it out but eventually gave up and headed home.

At home we found our monthly supply waiting for us at the door as well as an Amazon delivery.  Seriously, our UPS driver gets quite a work out at our house.

For a combined birthday/Father's Day present Reid got the new Lego Space Shuttle set.  He worked on it for a few days with some help.  You can't tell from this picture but she was so cute with her head barely reaching over the table as they worked.

The kids playing outside the day before I left for girls' camp.  Girls' Camp was the first time in over 10 years that I was going to spend a night without at least one of my own kids.  I was excited and nervous and knew I would miss the kids.  So, I was a little more camera happy this day!  Haha!

I love the sheer joy on her face here!